The Voyage of the Joyous Venture

Part 11

The Trial of Bernard Singh; Merry Christmas everyone

December 17^th

Miho investigates the nature of the trial she is to participate in. The man, Mr. Singh, who accosted her, will be tried before a syndicate of 3 representatives of the companies involved in the OTS. It is unclear where questions asked of her in the trial may lead - they may not be confined simply to the incident between herself and Mr. Singh. He will get representation.

Meanwhile Robert extracts DNA from his dinosaur tooth. He has run out of credit and so goes back to the Joyous Venture only to find that Komiko clearly wishes to be left alone. He decides to spend his days on the OTS and the nights on the Joyous Venture.

The crew, with the exception of Komiko and Sangiv, attend the trial. Komiko, it is assumed, is still on board the Joyous Venture but Sangiv is lurking near the courtroom. Various charges are laid against Mr. Singh to do with antisocial behaviour - the central one is "accosting a young female and inflicting disturbing behaviour on her".

Miho gives her evidence, describing the events. She is informed that Mr. Singh had accosted 5 women and 1 man and asked if she wishes to elaborate on anything. She does not. The defence calls Mr. Singh who raves about the anti-Christ and has to be removed forcibly from the courtroom. His representative offers no defence but throws Mr. Singh on the court's mercy. He is to be evacuated on the 18th – tomorrow!

Miho is trouble by the situation and Andi, who considers the court's verdict entirely sensible, nevertheless agrees to help check out Singh's background. He used to be a low-ranking executive of Virgin Offworld in Sol. Around age 30 he went a bit weird and started warning about the anti-Christ. He had personal funds and so was able to remain in Sol for a while. He has a string of convictions between Tau Ceti and Sol, being transported on a regular basis. Miho is interested in how he made it up from the planet surface back to the OTS. It suggests someone with resources wants to embarrass the administration. Andi finds reports saying the police have confirmed who took him back to the station and mention his unusual powers of persuasion.

It becomes clear that the powers that be on the OTS do not really understand religion. They regard it as a malefic force taking a form similar to a virus. They are clearly directly worried that Mr. Singh's obsessions will infect the OTS. This fear is confirmed by the fact that a number of people have been persuaded to his way of thinking although they often recant afterwards. In particular Singh appears to believe that he met the anti-Christ in Sol system in the form of a major executive. He is attempting to organise a crusade against Sol.

Andi and Miho send Mr. Singh's details to Houston who replies he's aware of Mr. Singh's abilities but he is not the person he wants.

December 17^th

Only Andi and Antonio choose to watch the execution.

The Joyous Venture is due to leave on the 20th. Andi arranges for someone to make the necessary hardware to provide a physical link between the Bheekhu hardware and her systems.

On returning to the ship, Andi and Miho both think Komiko looks a bit upset. Robert is convinced she's been crying. She reacts badly to comments Andi makes about Singh.

Andi and Antonio check the systems. Andi finds no evidence of tampering and is instantly suspicious. She rechecks more carefully. She still finds no evidence that anyone has tried to access the systems but she does find a record of an exchange between Komiko and a foreman working on the repairs. She accused him of not doing his job and he defended himself but about halfway through Komiko starts chanting "You will do the job properly. You will not allow any oversights." This went on for a minute and a half and by the end the foreman is simply going "hmmm yeah" in response to her. Andi does not mention this to the rest of the crew.

December 20^th

Jump out of Tau Ceti system

December 23^rd

Arrive Hunjiang system

December 25^th

It is Christmas. The crew agree to exchange gifts. After a bit of discussion they agree on a central pot into which everyone will put something they have made or found and then they will share them out. Robert has by now sequenced everyone's DNA and observes that the entire crew apart from Sangiv have the same triple inserts in their junk DNA. As his gift he frames all these sequences and writes a note on the back indicating how unlikely this is - Komiko gets this gift. Miho paints a copy of the Bheekhu religious paintings which Sangiv gets. Antonio makes a Nativity Set which Andi gets. Andi tries (and fails) to make a mobile of origami birds which Miho gets (and fixes). Komiko puts 500 credits into the pot which go to Antonio. Sangiv puts a Ganesh necklace into the pot which goes to Robert.